Global News

[ad_1] LOS ANGELES: Researchers have discovered a new way to reverse the effects of fentanyl , which is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Their research, which was published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, could lead to a new method of reversing overdoses, either through a new product or by working in tandem with naloxone. According to the Centres for Disease Control, 100,000 Americans die each year from overdoses, the majority of which are caused by the use of synthetic opiates such as fentanyl. While naloxone, the only antidote for opiate overdose , is becoming more widely available, it is less effective against fentanyl-class synthetic opioids. "The synthetic opiates bind very tightly to the opioid receptors," said Alex Straiker , senior research scientist for the Gill Center for Biomolecular Science. "Naloxone must compete with opioids for the same binding site in the central nervous system to cancel out an overdose. But during a fentanyl overdose,...